Sometimes we look at sights in nature but don't really see. While hiking in the woods the other day, it became a realization that we need to open our heart and eyes to see the beauty of the simple things in nature with each season. There is so much order and purpose in His creation. God has given us awesome beauty in this world to see and enjoy... if we would but stop to see and feel it. Join us as this blog is about stopping to see the real beauty around us...to touch and feel it... "Through the Lens".

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Thursday, April 26, 2012

We have been so busy lately taking care of Mr. Nick that we have been neglecting our birds. Well, actually the birds, the flowers, and the housekeeping. Keeping an energetic Shih Tzu calm and quiet as he begins to feel better is a tough job. We hate to crate him all the time so we try to give him some “out on the carpet time” and some outdoor time when we are home.

Anyway, this morning I noticed that most of our feeders were empty or nearly empty. We had also noticed recently that we have some visitors at our feeders. Yep, they are passing through and decided to stop for a good meal and visit. The beautiful Rose Breasted Grosbeak has taken up a temporary residence in our backyard. The male Grosbeak is the one with the most color…black/white with the bright red breast. On our last count we had at least five visiting with us. The Rose Breasted Grosbeak migrates through this area for their breeding grounds up north. They are just a traveling through!! It is so nice to have them stop by. They are just beautiful and fun to watch, and all these pics were taken within the hour we were out.

So this morning I decided that I needed to be a better hostess and place some food in the feeders. I filled the tube feeders, the platform feeder, the dome feeder and the hopper feeders. I spread the Birdacious Bark Butter on the little feeder for that and then filled up the peanut tube.

Mike and I sat back in our recliners and watched the show. Our friends must have missed us because they all started flying and swooping to the feeders. We saw the Hairy, Downey and Red-bellied woodpeckers, the Grosbeaks, Titmouse, Cardinals, Brown Thrashers, Mockingbird, Purple Finch, Wrens, Chickadee, Nuthatch and I’m sure there were some others. We sat and watched this beautiful show for almost an hour.

Mr. Nick is improving!!! Our last Vet visit on Monday had him showing some significant improvement. In fact, on this visit he only had the chiropractic adjustment and not the laser treatment. We are beginning to come off the Prednisone. You have to come off this medicine slowly. He is still confined to the carpet area in the living room and is crated when we go out and at night. We actually brought him into the bed with us early yesterday morning and he did fine. He actually laid down and went back to sleep….not so this morning so we had to take him back to his crate. Poor baby!! The Vet told us Monday that it would be another couple of weeks of calm, quiet confinement. We are so thankful he is improving!! It has been so sad and stressful to see him in pain and not feeling his self!! We are beginning to see our little Nick again and it is getting harder and harder to keep him calm and quiet. A mixed blessing!!

Wishing all our blogging friends a wonderful weekend!!

He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion. - Unknown

Thursday, April 19, 2012

A tiny relapse! Just when you think it's safe to say Nick is doing better..... It seems he was feeling so much better yesterday that he walked on the carpet area too much and visited with his girl friend Casey too much, and today is not quite as good.

Since he was feeling puny this morning wee took him for another "treatment" and he is resting quietly and calmly on his carpet WITHOUT his girlfriend nearby. Poor guy!! He just loves to play and follow her around.

Since I had not heard of chiropractic for dogs nor laser treatments, we talked with the vet and also googled information about it. It seems that “Low Level Laser Therapy stimulates tissue repair through a process of PhotoBioStimulation. Light travels as bundles of energy called Photons. This allows the light to penetrate the surface of the skin without any heating effects or damage to the skin. Photons will only be absorbed by the cells that need help. They normalize injured tissue by activating enzymes. The enzymes trigger chemical reactions in the cells, supplying energy for the cells to take in nutrients and dispose of waste products faster. This promotes natural healing and pain relief.” This above information is from the site http://www.dogrepair.com/low_level_laser.htm and this tells a lot about laser treatments for dogs.

This treatment is also called VOM and information on that can be found on the site below. http://www.vomtech.com/whatis.htm For me it is easier to link you to the information rather than try to explain it.

Anyway, if Nick continues to improve he won’t see the vet until Monday…hope that is the case. Technologically improved medicine sure is costly, but little Nick is very much worth it!

Thanks for letting us share with you about our four legged family member.

Monday, April 16, 2012

If it’s not one thing it’s ten!! We were planning a trip down to Gulf Shores and the Fairhope, Alabama area leaving on Thursday morning!! We needed to get away and wanted to see Darrell and Judy Patterson before they left Rainbow Plantation for their summer travels and catch up with Paul and Margery Zeller again. With the laundry all complete and everything almost packed we woke up Wednesday morning to discover our little Shih Tzu, Nick, not feeling his usual perky self!! We watched him for a few hours and then decided things were just not right and with us leaving the next morning we wanted to make sure he was ok. So off to the Vet we headed.

After checking Nick out, Dr. Whitlow couldn’t really pinpoint exactly anything specific. He asked me if he jumped a lot and I said no thinking of jumping up not down. I told him he was prone to stomach issues so he gave him some “souped up Pepto Bismal” and so we left. A few hours later we noticed that whenever we touched him he would wince a little. Again, we knew something was just not right. So off we went back to the Vet. This time I did confess that there are times he might jump off the sofa….he never jumps up, doesn’t know how! He began to check along his back and that is when the real problem was discovered. Little Nick had a slipped disc. He performed a chiropractic adjustment and a laser treatment on him and hoped we might not have to use steroids. Our Vet is closed on Thursday so we watched him and kept him as calm and quiet as we could. This was not too hard since he really didn’t feel too good. We knew Dr. Whitlow wanted to see him on Friday so we immediately halted our plans for heading to Gulf Shores/Fairhope.

Friday Nick wasn’t feeling much better so the Vet wanted us to leave him for the morning and he would take X-rays perform a chiropractic adjustment and run a couple of laser treatments. When we went to pick him up he told us he had given Nick a shot (steroid) and wanted him to take the pills for a few weeks. He takes two a day for five days, then one a day for five days, then one every other day for five days. Have to come off slowly.

By the evening he was feeling soooo much better. We are watching him carefully, keeping him calm (which isn’t easy now that he feels better) and he has to sleep in his crate. When we go off we crate him. I think he remembers the crate because we used to crate him when we went to work….years ago! We sit on the floor with him to keep him from running after one of the other doggies….do you know how hard a hardwood floor is???? Wow am I sore!!

So our trip has been postponed until our little guy is better. We have even entertained heading to Savannah instead of Gulf Shores. I have become very motivated to explore Savannah after reading Donna’s blog (Adventures with Tassie). They just left the area and Donna did an outstanding job of giving us a tour of this beautiful, historic city. I have no doubt there will be many photo opportunities in this gorgeous place!!

Thursday, April 12, 2012

I told Mike that if we are not able to travel very far at this time, we were certainly blessed to have Callaway Gardens very nearby. It is only a mere 15 miles from our house in LaGrange and we hold a seasonal pass.

The disappointment of having to change our plans from full-timing to part-timing was so huge for us. We certainly know our friends reading this blog will definitely understand. No need to preach to the choir now is there??? Well anyway, as they say when God closes one door He opens another. For us that door was in the way of Callaway Gardens. For folks like us that love the outdoors and nature, it is a true blessing. Add to that the love of photo opportunities…well, there you have it.

This is a close up of a Mt. Laurel bloom

Monday we decided to spend some quiet time together just walking and enjoying! The azaleas, for the most part, have completed their thing for this season. They were just gorgeous!! But nature always seems to have something to offer during every season of the year. We found a few things to share on this visit. Hope you enjoy!!

We always stop at this bench that overlooks the pond on the trail.

This above is a bloom of a Native Azalea

We can never go to Callaway Gardens without stopping at the Chapel and just sitting there in such a serene environment.

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About Us

Gerri and I were married in 1982 and have dreamed of full-timing for quite some time. September, 2009 we began our fulltime adventure. In December 2016 we re-entered the full-time lifestyle but now in our New Oliver travel Trailer. We want to see the beauties of God's creation whether they be grand sights or plain simple beauties. To see and experience the lifestyles of the different areas of our country. God is good!